The station's red warning lights slowly brightened, simulating a gloomy sunset. The inhabitants began packing up their stalls, returning to the nooks and crannies they called home.
The Black Storm group sat together on a large panel from an old ship's hull. They shared a hard, dry protein bar, chewing in silence. Outside the window, through the station's thin atmosphere, a giant plasma storm—a living entity—was "dancing" amidst a nebula, its rays tearing through the cosmic night.
"Tomorrow," Ember spoke up, breaking the silence. "Tomorrow we'll go hunting. We'll find something valuable. It'll be enough to trade for Essence for the air filter, and even... some jelly candy." She looked towards Celeste, who was gazing with longing eyes at celestial bodies floating around the Trash-Dragon.
"Really?" Celeste asked, the galaxies in her eyes blazing brightly.
"Yeah." Ember nodded, though unsure inside. "Really. Time to go home now."
The Black Storm group stopped in the most desolate corner of Trash-Dragon, where long-abandoned wreckage was covered in thick metal dust and rusty cobwebs. There, leaning against a warped titanium bulkhead, was a giant figure of bronze and steel. It was massive, at least three times the size of a normal person. Its body was assembled from countless pieces of ancient spaceship hulls, charred heat shields, and long-dead engines. The welds looked crude, as if done hastily with some alien technology.
It was no longer a shapeless pile of junk. It had the form of an old man sitting hunched, knees drawn up to its chin. Its face, a patchwork of wood-like cracks and weathered metal scraps, showed the endless wrinkles of immeasurable age. It sat on a "throne" made from the deformed tail of a space shuttle, forming a ragged dais. Its two rusty metal arms hugged its knees, and its large head was bowed low, almost touching its chest. A frightening stillness enveloped it. There was no sign of life, only the smell of old machine oil, ozone, and something sweet like rotting meat. A few Cable Swarms crawled over it cautiously, as if avoiding a sleeping predator.
Ember approached, taking a deep breath. "GULP!" - Her voice rang out, sharp in the silence.
A moment passed. Only the wind whistling through the gaps.
Then, a slow, pained metallic groan emanated from deep within the figure. It began to shake slightly, causing dust to sprinkle down.
Suddenly, the entire massive structure began to sink. It didn't collapse, but slowly, leisurely, like a ship sinking in liquid sand. Metal groaned, the ground beneath it opened up, swallowing its legs, then its torso, and finally its head.
In less than a minute, where a giant statue once stood, there was only flat, dusty ground.
Then, right in front of the Black Storm group, the ground cracked open.
A giant mouth, over two meters wide, appeared. It had no lips. It was just a dark fissure, lined with sharp, broken steel plates resembling primitive, terrifying teeth. Around the mouth, dirt and debris began to slide into the bottomless pit.
But more frightening were the eyes. Two dark, deep sockets were now revealed on the ground's surface, above the mouth. They saw nothing, but seemed to sense the group's presence.
And then, the mouth began to move.
It didn't jump. It slid across the ground, fast and unnaturally smooth, like a snake. The earth beneath it seemed to liquefy to make way. It rushed towards the Black Storm group, not to attack, but like a hungry, mobile pit, swallowing everything in its path—a trash can, a broken robot corpse, all disappearing into the dark maw without a sound.
It stopped right at their feet, the mouth still gaping, exhaling a hot breath reeking of metal and something ancient.
"JUMP!" - Ember screamed, no longer a command but an instinctive cry for survival.
The group leaped simultaneously into the waiting abyss. Celeste gripped Ember's hand tightly, eyes shut. Teron emitted a rapid series of beeps.
The moment their shadows vanished into the darkness, the mouth snapped shut with a wet, satisfied "SLURP!" Then it, along with the eyes, slowly submerged beneath the ground, leaving behind an intact, silent surface with no trace.
It all happened in less than ten seconds. Everything returned to quiet, as if nothing had ever happened. Only a few Cable Swarms dared to crawl near again, cautious as if avoiding the mouth of a slumbering monster that had just woken hungry.
Inside, a warm and strange space unfolded. Walls of flesh pulsed gently, half-digested spaceship husks formed rooms, and nutrient-conduit pipes glowed softly. This was their home. This was Gulp.
Teron crawled to a corner, pulled out a "Essence" out of energy, and started arranging them into the shape of a house. Celeste sat down next to a warm wall and whispered about her day. Ember took off her goggles, wiping the dust from the violet lens.
A faint Echo reappeared, sitting down beside Celeste, listening without a word.
They were safe. They were home. They were fragments who had found each other in a vast, cold universe.
Epilogue:
"On Trash-Dragon, even fragments can become stars. And sometimes, those stars find each other, so that they may shine together in the darkness."
Excerpt from the diary of an anonymous resident (accidentally edited by Teron, who changed the word 'then' to 'so that')
Explanation of the phrase:
"Excerpt from the diary of an anonymous resident (accidentally edited by Teron, who changed the word 'then' to 'so that')"
The original text was likely:
The sentence in the original diary probably read:
· "On Trash-Dragon, even fragments can become stars, then those stars find each other, to shine together in the darkness."
Teron's alteration:
At some point, perhaps while wandering near where the diary was kept, or simply by accidentally "scanning" its content in the universe's data stream, an unconscious beep escaped him.
That beep equated to a micro-edit command in reality's source code. It changed one keyword in the sentence:
· From "then" (indicating simple chronological sequence: this happens, then that happens)
· To "so that" (indicating purpose, intention, or deeper cause: this happens so that that can happen).
Meaning of the change:
· Original ("then"): Describes a fortunate sequence of events. Fragments become stars, and then, by chance, those stars find each other. It's random and passive.
· Edited version ("so that"): Makes the sentence more profound, active, and intentional. It implies that "fragments becoming stars" is not the end goal. It's a step in a larger plan, a transformation with a clear purpose: so that those stars can find each other and shine together. It turns a coincidence into a fated arrangement, an effort to rise up and end loneliness.
In short, Teron accidentally turned a beautiful sentence into a powerful, hopeful manifesto about reunion and the meaning of shattered lives.